


Cake and Kisses

by Ianxgallagher, ratpoet



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Baking, Domesticity, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, cuteness, s5 didn't happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 17:50:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4929331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ianxgallagher/pseuds/Ianxgallagher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratpoet/pseuds/ratpoet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A five-tier rainbow cake with an intricate pattern made of whipped cream on top. What could possibly go wrong? A lot, apparently, as Ian, Yev and Liam soon find out.</p>
<p>But when things seem tough, help often appears from unexpected corners.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cake and Kisses

“Daddy! Hey, daddy, wake up!” a small, pudgy hand hits Mickey square in the face as he wakes up to the smell of baby shampoo and cheese.

“Mm,” he mumbles out, pulling a pillow out from under Ian’s head and swatting at Yevgeny’s face with it gently.

“Go annoy your dad,” Mickey says, voice soft with sleep.

“Dad, Daddy’s attacking me!” Yevgeny giggles, pummelling Mickey with his fists. A pale freckled hand appears in front of Mickey’s eyes, and Ian’s fingers gently ruffle up his hair.

“Daddy’s being bad, huh?” Ian says, putting on a deep voice for Yevgeny’s benefit.

“Yeah,” Yevgeny says, face the very embodiment of seriousness. Mickey pokes his back, right in his tickle spot, and he bursts out laughing. Ian shakes his head at him.

“You know a poker face isn’t any good if you’re just gonna laugh,” Ian says, smiling.

“It’s not my fault daddy cheated!” Yevgeny protests. Ian smiles and presses a kiss to the top of his head.

“C’mon, let’s leave your daddy alone. He needs some sleep after last night,” Ian says, winking at Mickey behind Yevgeny’s back.

“What happened last night?” Yevgeny asked, his big eyes turned towards Ian.

“Daddy had a job to take care of,” Ian says.

“What kind of job?” Yevgeny asks.

“A really hard job,” Ian smiling as he gathers Yevgeny in his arms. Mickey snorts into the pillow. This fucking dork.

-x-

"So we need baking trays, icing sugar, chocolate, milk and flour, right buddy?" Ian asks, counting on his fingertips as he pushes open the door to the store. 

"And skittles! Aunt Mandy says that rainbows are beautiful," Yevgeny said, practically bouncing up and down behind Ian.               

"They are, baby," Ian smiles at Yevgeny. He walks into the store, Yevgeny in tow, and walks right up to the counter.                 

Nothing much has changed. It's still the same shitty neighbourhood store with too many cans of chicken stock and too few bottles of Gatorade, the floors sticky and the walls peeling, and the smell of metal and window cleaner still strong in the air. 

"Look who's here," Linda says, looking up from the notebook she's correcting. The corners of her lips turn up at the sight of Ian. It's not a smile, not quite. But it’s almost there. 

Then she spies Yevgeny shyly peering out from behind Ian, and her lips bloom into a proper smile.

“Looks like you brought someone with you,” Linda says, smiling at Yevgeny. Ian would never understand it- Linda could make a grown man scream in terror, but when it came to children, she suddenly surrendered all her fierceness. It reminded him of Svetlana.

“Say hi to Linda, Yev,” Ian says, smiling encouragingly at Yevgeny.

“Hi Linda,” he says, voice small.

“Hi Yev,” Linda says, bending to maintain eye contact with him. She smiles wide at him, and he tentatively smiles back.

“D’you know, your dad and Ian used to work here?” she asks, still speaking softly.

“Really?” Yevgeny asks, eyes widening.

Ian smiles at both of them. He’d never have thought, but he’s missed Linda. He’s hit by a fresh pang of guilt for sleeping with her husband. It comes back every now and then. Ian breathes deeply, and repeats to himself- _not your fault, not your fault_.

He tries not to think too much about it. He’s getting pretty good at that.

“Yeah,” Linda says, “except they worked less and took unofficial breaks more.” Linda winks at Ian.

“You knew about that?” Ian asks, his cheeks turning the colour of his hair.

Linda rolls her eyes and smirks.

“Of course I knew about that.”

-x-

“Daddy? Will Liam be here soon?” Yevgeny asks for the twelfth time, bouncing up and down on his stool beside Ian. 

“Yeah, calm down bud. He should be here any minute,” Ian replies as he searches for an easy recipe in a cookbook for starters. All the ingredients lie in front of them on the counter haphazardly.

“What if he forgets?” Yevgeny says with an undertone of concern in his voice.

“He won't. I promi─” Ian’s voice is cut off by a knock echoing through the whole apartment.

“That's him! That's him! Can I open the door? Please let me open the door, daddy!” Yevgeny says, leaping for joy.

 Ian chuckles and nods. “Yeah, go on and open the door.”

“Don't forget to thank Fiona for bringing Liam here!” he calls out after Yevgeny.

Yev opens the door and smiles wide at Liam and Fiona before grabbing Liam’s hand and tugging him inside. Liam giggles at Yevgeny’s enthusiasm, but let’s himself be pulled in.

“Hi Auntie Fi. Thanks Auntie Fi. Bye Auntie Fiona,” he shouts before disappearing into the kitchen with Liam.

 Fiona just laughs and steps into the house, closing the door behind her. “Where's your Dad, Yev?” she asks, pulling off her beanie. She quickly scans the room for any traces of Ian spiralling again, the telltale untouched bottles of pills or mess of notebooks sprawled on the floor. She heaves a sigh of relief as she sees nothing of the sort.

It’s not enough, of course, a cursory check could never be enough, but it’s something. Ian’s okay, as far as she knows.

“I'm in the kitchen, Fiona,” Ian calls out.

Fiona steps into the kitchen and eyes the table curiously. She can only hope Ian isn’t attempting to bake a cake again. 

“What’s up?” she asks.

 “We’re gonna bake a cake for Aunt Mandy's birthday, right daddy?” Yevgeny asks, looking up at Ian with big round eyes.

Fuck, Fiona thinks.

Ian nods distractedly and flips through the book.

“Yeah, that’s right, buddy,” he mumbles, concentrating on the recipes.

 “You do remember the Cake Incident, right? When you were 7 and you tried to bake a cake for me?” Fiona asks. It’s a pathetic attempt at damage control, but she has to try.

“I was 7, okay? A kid,” Ian says, raising his eyebrows sharply at Fiona. His jaw’s doing the thing again, so she backtracks quickly and holds up her hands in mock surrender, mouthing ‘ _your own funeral, buddy_ ’. Liam giggles at them.

“So where’s Mickey?” Fiona asks.

“He's sleeping. Wore him out,” Ian smirks to himself. Fiona rolls her eyes at him. It was shameful, how her younger brother always seemed to be getting more action than her.

“Guys, look! I found the perfect cake for us!”  Ian shrieks suddenly, holding the book above his head and grinning wide at Yev and Liam.

Fiona took one look at the page and closed her eyes. A five-tier rainbow cake with an intricate pattern made of whipped cream on top. What could possibly go wrong?

Yevgeny starts clapping at the spectacle in front of him. Liam smiles at him and after a moment of hesitation, joins in.

“Alright, I gotta go. See ya later,” Fiona announces, ready to bolt.

“Bye, Fi,” Ian says, distracted again as he peruses the instructions. Yevgeny and Liam react more appropriately- Yevgeny hugs both of Fiona’s legs to make her stay and Liam calmly waves at her, enjoying the tussle between her and Yevgeny. She finally manages to disentangle herself, and leaves with a kiss on the head for Yev and Liam, and a whispered _don’t burn the house down, okay?_ for Ian.

 

“Okay, Yev, I need you to bring me 4 eggs. Liam, bring me a bowl and flour. I'll get butter, milk and sugar,” Ian says, handing Yevgeny and Liam two chef hats. He’s already regretting picking the five-tier cake, but he isn’t about to back off now.

The boys head to the counter with the ingredients and grab them in their tiny hands. Yevgeny turns around a little too fast and bumps into Liam, who loses his balance and falls down on the kitchen floor. The flour swirls around in the air and suddenly they're in a snow globe, before the white powder settles on the floor and covers it completely.

In an attempt to save the bowl, Ian leaps heroically, slips on the floor, nearly tears his pants, and then watches the bowl shatter inches from his nose.

Ian sighs, getting up and wiping the flour off his face. Yevgeny's lip trembles, eyes wide in shock and clearly on the verge of tears.

“I- I didn't want- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make such a mess, daddy,” Yevgeny says, close to tears.

Ian gives him a gentle smile and ruffles his hair. 

“It's okay, Yev. I'm going to clean this up after I get Liam something to wear, okay?” Ian says calmly as he helps Liam onto his feet.

“Go and wash your hands and face, both of you. I'll be right back with clean clothes,” he says, silently observing how Liam smashes an egg over Yevgeny's head.

 He should probably scold Liam for it, but he can't find the energy.

“And don't do anything stupid, alright?” he warns. They ignore him and start throwing flour at each other. Ian sighs and turns around to look for a mop, only to bump into someone else immediately.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell happened in here? Are we in Winter fucking wonderland now?” Mickey’s annoyed voice fills the kitchen as he grabs Ian by the shoulders to stabilise him.

“Dad!” Yevgeny says, running up to him and wrapping his tiny body around his legs, flour and yolk et al. Liam follows suit, with a cheery “Uncle Mick!” and a 5-second hug.

“Mickey!” Ian says weakly, giving him a tired smile.

“Hey, hey, guys. Seriously, what the fuck happened here?” Mickey asks, running his eyes over the trio, and their ruined clothes.

“Yev had a little accident with the flour,” Ian says, flashing Yevgeny a smile when he looks up at him with wide eyes and trembling lips.

“Okay,” Mickey says, biting his Lip and trying to figure out what to do next. Ian sighs.

“I'll clean up here, you get the boys changed,” he says, ruffling Yevgeny’s hair and picking out an eggshell in the process.

“Nah, you guys go on up. I'll take care of this mess,” Mickey says, taking stock of the kitchen and sighing softly. It really is a mess, what with footprints dotting the flour-covered floor and broken eggshells scattered over every surface. Mickey isn’t sure, but he thinks there’s some yolk in the oven.

“You sure?” Ian asks, biting his Lip. There’s nothing he wants to do now more than take a long shower, but he doesn’t want Mickey to have to deal with the kitchen alone.

“The cake isn’t gonna bake itself,” Ian adds, as an afterthought.

Mickey rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, I can take care of that,” he says. Ian raises his eyebrows at him.

“You know how to bake?” Ian asks. Mickey’s cheeks colour at the question.

“Mandy taught me,” he glares at Ian, daring him to make a smart ass comment. Ian holds up his hands in surrender, but not without flashing Mickey a smirk.

“Come on, boys. Let’s go,” Ian says, guiding Yevgeny and Liam out of the kitchen. Mickey closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

“Right. Let’s do this,” he says to himself, voice echoing in the empty kitchen.

-x-

Ian wakes up with a stale taste in his mouth and a handful of baby powder up his nose. For a second, he thinks it’s morning. Then, he remembers that he never attended Mandy’s birthday party. And finally, the realization hits him.

_Oh, shit. The cake._

He practically flies down the stairs, slipping down two steps in his haste. He can't believe he didn’t even check on Mickey once, or offer any sort of help. The slight smell of burning does nothing to ease his anxiety.

He bumps into someone on the way down, both of them falling on the floor in a heap.

“Jesus, Ian. Once a day is enough,” Mickey says, annoyed.

Ian looks up at him with panicked eyes and raises his eyebrows.

“What happened to the cake?” Ian asks. Mickey raises his eyebrows in turn, lips curling into a smirk.

“See for yourself,” he says, getting up and offering Ian a hand. Ian takes it dubiously, following Mickey into the kitchen.

 

He looks around in wonder at the sight before him, taking in the balloons hanging from the ceiling, the streamers lining the door, and the box of confetti lying by the floor. Then his eyes fall on the table, and immediately widen.

Because there, lying on the clean polka-dotted tablecloth is a four-tier chocolate cake, complete with vanilla icing and gelatine flowers. Ian opens his mouth to say something, and closes it again.

“Well?” Mickey asks, waggling his eyebrows at Ian, voice carefree and casual. That’s how Ian knows that Mickey’s nervous.

Ian shakes his head theatrically, and turns to Mickey. He stares into his eyes for a second, and then suddenly presses his mouth against Mickey’s. After a second of surprise, Mickey kisses him back, sliding his tongue into Ian’s mouth and tasting the staleness from his nap.

Ian pulls away just as Mickey wraps a leg around him. He doesn’t want a repeat of the time Yevgeny walked in on them, after all.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Ian asks, looking at Mickey with wide eyes and a wide smile. Another one of Mickey’s talents Ian had known nothing about.

“Nothing to tell,” Mickey says, shrugging nonchalantly. Ian laughs, and pulls Mickey in for another kiss, shutting the door behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Find us on tumblr: 
> 
> Ianxgallagher: [ianxxgallagher.tumblr.com](http://ianxxgallagher.tumblr.com/)
> 
> GreenNeonLights: [fiandvee.tumblr.com](http://fiandvee.tumblr.com/)


End file.
